Protecting our children from all threats is our number one job as parents. In today’s world, parents must safeguard their children in the digital realm just as intensely as in the physical world. From smartphones to gaming devices and smartwatches, your kids access the online world in various ways. The apps that young people use today vary greatly and can expose them to dangerous behavior. We’ve compiled a list of the biggest offenders to educate parents on the most dangerous apps for kids.
In this article, we will also address the key elements that make an app dangerous to help parents identify any app not on this list, as new ones pop up daily. We will give you the most essential elements to teach your children to understand how and why apps can be risky. Learn how to protect kids from these dangerous apps here.
Key Takeaways:
- Popularity doesn’t equal safety. Any app that allows private messaging, public accounts, and limited monitoring can pose a risk to impressionable teens.
- Parents need to stay diligent in monitoring the apps their children use, including keeping up to date on teen slang.
- Have regular discussions about online safety and set clear rules for your expectations of your teens’ behavior.
- A monitoring app like MMGuardian gives parents peace of mind by monitoring their accounts for inappropriate and dangerous content.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Apps for Kids:
1. TikTok:
While entertaining, it poses risks due to potential exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and privacy concerns. It is the most popular app among teens, so we placed it in the #1 position. If allowing their child to use it, parents must stay current with TikTok’s parental controls and insist their child only keep a private account.
2. Snapchat:
Snapchat is an extremely popular social media app and communication tool with teens and tweens. The app is known for encouraging interaction by ranking friends and keeping up “streaks” of communication. The primary concerns are its disappearing messages can encourage risky behavior, and the Snap Map feature can reveal a child’s location to strangers.
3. Instagram:
Despite age restrictions, it exposes kids to harmful content, cyberbullying, and pressures related to body image and social comparison. Instagram recently instituted a change to make every account of a person under 16 years old private. However, this only controls who can see the account. It does not change the danger of the child having access to inappropriate content, especially porn. In addition to these concerns, Instagram has copied Snapchat by adding disappearing messages.
4. Kik:
This anonymous messaging app lacks strong moderation, making it a potential haven for predators and cyberbullies. Anyone can hide behind an anonymous username and send individual and group messages, photos, and greeting cards. There are so many other ways kids can message each other that Kik isn’t necessary, and unless your kids are on Kik talking to friends they already know, they are in chat rooms talking to strangers.
5. Discord:
It’s not a simple messaging app for gamers. Discord has servers, like chat rooms, where your children can interact with strangers worldwide. They can also interact via direct messaging, video chat, and video calls. It is not just for kids; adults on this app can expose children to adult content. It is also a haven for pedophiles and sexual predators. Discord regularly makes the top of the list of platforms that expose children to hate speech, cyberbullying, sexual content, and violence.
6. Yik Yak:
What was once on its way out has now made a resurgence. Yik Yak takes anonymity to the next level by requiring no information from the user. Publicly posted messages can be ready by anyone logging in within a five-mile radius. Teens are using this app again, and the anonymity allows for wildly inappropriate conversations and adult content.
7. Vault apps such as Calculator%:
Teens and tweens are skilled at hiding information from their parents, and now there are apps to help them with that. Vault apps look benign but are instead a location to hide secret information and photos. A seemingly innocent app, like a calculator, can hide pictures and videos, potentially concealing risky behavior. One key sign of a vault app is that it requires a password or code to open it.
8. Holla:
Holla is a live video chat app that advertises itself as a great way to meet new people from all over the world. This video chat app connects users with strangers via its matching feature, increasing the risk of exposure to inappropriate content and predators. Holla has little to no protections as live video conferencing occurs in real-time. It only allows users to report an incident after it has happened.
9. Twitter/X:
While Twitter/X is mainly known for breaking news and celebrity gossip, it doesn’t draw a lot of younger users. Except for one thing, Twitter/X is known as the place where most teens and adults access porn. Twitter/X allows anyone to access its content through a web browser without an account. So, your teens could be watching porn on Twitter/X whether or not you restrict the app from their devices.
10. Roblox:
A popular gaming app with kids and teens, Roblox hosts servers and games your kids can join, allowing them to interact with people they don’t know. The access to children through the anonymity of a username makes it a haven for pedophiles and sexual predators.
How to Talk to Your Kids About These Dangerous Apps:
While some states have recently enacted laws to require schools to teach Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship, it still falls on the parents to teach our children about these dangerous apps for kids. Knowing the essential facts to teach your children can make the difference between scaring them away and inviting them into the conversation. If we send the message that all technology for kids is harmful and dangerous, we will feed into the old teenage mantra of “parents just don’t understand.” To avoid this trap, focus on facts and less on emotion.
Start by teaching your child about app age limits and ratings. The Apple App Store and Google Play Store give ratings to apps and suggest a minimum age for the user. Use this information to facilitate the conversation about how apps can be full of adult content and are inappropriate for younger users. Show them statistics about popular apps’ levels of unacceptable content or cyberbullying incidents versus individual stories of one user’s experience.
Remind them of the rules for chatting and what you want them to do when they face uncomfortable messages. Teach your children that not everyone online is who they say they are. Be sure to discuss with your children what to do if they receive a message or picture that makes them uncomfortable. Remind them that they will not be in trouble with you. Your goal should be to make them feel safe from punishment and judgment from you. Use a parenting contract with your child to facilitate this.
Use helpful tools for parents like MMGuardian.
Even the most diligent and tech-savvy parent is at risk of missing information and slipping up when protecting their children online. We can teach our kids that it’s safe to come to us when an inappropriate or uncomfortable message comes their way, but will they? Thankfully, there are tools for parents that will help you monitor your child’s use of technology more efficiently.
The best parental control tool is MMGuardian. This app will monitor your child’s accounts and alert you to any inappropriate, harmful, violent, or sexual content right away. Any parent who wants backup and peace of mind, like alerts and notifications, to monitor their child’s online life should download MMGuardian today. For parents who want maximum control, check out the MMGuardian Phone.
